News Release Details

8/6/2010

Public invited to tour the new Nursing Education Center

[Click Image to Enlarge] EAC invites the public to tour its new Nursing Education Center on August 18, 2010. [EAC – Todd Haynie photo]

By Todd Haynie

THATCHER, AZ—The Graham County Community College District Governing Board of Eastern Arizona College is pleased to invite the public to tour the newest addition to the College’s campus facilities, the Nursing Education Center. A dedication ceremony for the building is planned for Wednesday, August 18, 2010, beginning at 11:30 a.m., in the lobby of the new building which is located on the southeast corner of College Avenue and Railroad Street in Thatcher, on the College’s Middle Campus.

The program will include a welcome by Dr. Phil McBride, Dean of Instruction, a history of nursing at EAC by Provost Jeanne Bryce, a musical number by local singing group, The Alston Sisters, dedicatory remarks by EAC President Mark Bryce, and a Lighting of the Lamp presentation by Carolyn McCormies, the College’s Nursing Program director. Public tours of the building will begin immediately following the program from noon until 3 p.m.

“Our caring and dedicated instructors are excited about the opportunities this new building will provide our students,” said McCormies. “The quality of instruction and learning our students will receive in this facility will exceed that available anywhere in the state.”

The 15,651 square-foot facility will consolidate the College’s Nursing Program under one roof. Among its features are a critical clinical care simulation room where students learn hands-on lifesaving skills; a state-of-the-art skills lab with all of the features of an acute care hospital, including an area for students to practice labor and delivery and care of newborns; two media-enriched classrooms capable of the latest technological teaching techniques; a 24-station computer lab equipped with the latest nursing testing information; offices for eight full-time nursing faculty with an area for part-time clinical faculty; and study space for the over 120 enrolled nursing students on the Thatcher Campus.

The building, which was completed in just over a year, came in on-time and under budget with a savings of more than $1.5 million over the initial projected cost. College officials broke ground on the building in June of 2009.